These are the modules I find myself installing on almost every Druapl instance I have created. If you want, you can just run the code within the appropriate 'modules' folder of your Drupal instance. The links will change as time goes on so please take that into account.
Content Construction Kit
The Content Construction Kit (CCK) allows you to add custom fields to nodes. CCK is basically what lets you create great custom content-types for your Drupal instance.
Date
The Date module comes with an API that allows other modules to use newer PHP date functions. It also adds a nice Date field for use with CCK. The Date module also comes with a pop-up date picker.
Views
Views is an amazing module. A view can be a collection of nodes of a certain type. The view can be displayed as a table, grid, teaser list, full node list, and a RSS feed. There are a number of arguments and variables you an change to make dynamic views.
WYSIWYG, IMCE, & The Bridge
These three modules combine to form a near perfect WYSIWYG editor. The WYSIWYG module is an API that enables multiple editors to work with Drupal. IMCE is an image/file uploader. The IMCE WYSIWYG Bridge module brings the two together. The Bridge is only compatible with the FCKeditor and TinyMCE WYSIWYG editors, but those two are probably the best ones out there.
CAPTCHA & reCAPTCHA
These two modules enable a simple anti-spam measure. You could use CAPTCHA on its own, but I prefer reCAPTCHA simply because it helps digitize books while also preventing spam. You could also use the Mollom module or the Spam module.
